Information or Confirmation?

I start every day with the Darren Daily. He’s a guru/life coach and I take everything free he gives me. And if I had some extra scratch, I would quite likely take one of his courses.

This morning, he talks about how we consume information. He makes the case that we like information more as confirmation of what we already think more than we like to actually learn and be informed.

Who isn’t guilty of that? He points out the way you consume news (Fox or MSNBC, New York Times or Drudge Report) is proof of this. Believe it or not, I have a theory that you need to watch Sean Hannity and listen to Rush Limbaugh, and then watch Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert, then read articles in various publications and only then can you find the middle, the truth, and form your own opinion.

Gasp. I have my own opinion? Well, I try.

Darren’s lesson, however, wasn’t political. It was about our work, personal, and spiritual life. For me, I need to apply it to my work life.

Very soon I will celebrate 20 years in radio advertising sales. I’m an “old dog”, yet I want to learn “new tricks”. I desperately want to work with the energy, optimism, and open-mindedness of a guy (or gal) just breaking into the business. I want my mind to be free of the “we’ve never done it that way ” or “you can’t do it that way” mentality that creates roadblocks before I even try.

A guy on the staff “cold called” via Facebook Messenger and landed a great big account. Before he did that I would probably have said everything is about seed-letters (by mail) and cold-calls (using an actual phone).

But good lord! It’s 2017. A “cold call” is an old term. It’s more philosophical than literal. If someone gets a random email, or Facebook Message, or LinkedIn message, or Tweet, or we connect on SnapChat and I start telling him about what I do for a living and how I might be able to help his biz …it’s still “cold”. And think about it …someone pointed out we all hate getting phone calls because we …dont’ …have …time.

That “we hate phone calls” concept came from Gary Vaynerchuck as did this…

Gary Vaynerchuk, another guru type guy, has a podcast and last week (listen here) he addressed “sales” and scolded his audience for having dozens of extra ways to “cold call”, prospect, and make sales and yet when he asked for a show of hands from the audience on who’s using LinkedIn, Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube and other connecting apps and networks, he laughed at the lack of raised hands.

“Do you know how many of you have a point-of-view on what Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook can do for your business and you’ve never used the fuckin’ product?” -Gary Vaynerchuk

In my day-to-day worklife, it’s time I, too, embrace change and seek out information that is less confirmation and more instigation, aggitation, and frustration. Only then will I grow. I will shake up my own comfort-zone to eliminate complacency and a victim mentality.